


As The Drifts Get Deeper

by skywaterblue



Series: Josh Lyman Mutantverse Fics [2]
Category: The West Wing, X-Men (Movieverse)
Genre: Crack, Crossover, F/M, Mutant
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2009-11-20
Updated: 2009-11-20
Packaged: 2017-10-03 11:17:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skywaterblue/pseuds/skywaterblue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She was sitting at the bar, legs swinging in goofy arcs under the table and half a pint in her glass. The peanut shells she was shucking were discarded nearby into very neat and tidy piles, as she tucked an errant strand of blonde hair behind her ear. Even from this distance, he could tell she was flirting with the bartender. Josh couldn't decide if this was a charming example of her youth or a frightening omen of the naivete of the woman-- girl really, who had just walked into his life this afternoon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	As The Drifts Get Deeper

She was sitting at the bar, legs swinging in goofy arcs under the table and half a pint in her glass. The peanut shells she was shucking were discarded nearby into very neat and tidy piles, as she tucked an errant strand of blonde hair behind her ear. Even from this distance, he could tell she was flirting with the bartender. Josh couldn't decide if this was a charming example of her youth or a frightening omen of the naivete of the woman-- girl really, who had just walked into his life this afternoon.

Really, who flirted with the bartender in a Radisson in eastbumfuck New Hampshire?

Beside him, Mandy frowned in angry little blue gashes across his mind, and he rubbed her arm through her coat. In response, she pulled away and stomped the snow off her shoes in an irritated huff. "Josh? Did you even hear what I just said? You have to get Leo to give me a little more-- I can't compete against Wiley in South Carolina if he buys all the targeted ad spots before we get there."

"You've been here less than an hour, Mandy. Give me at least half an hour before you start throwing around what little cash on hand the campaign actually has," Josh muttered, tucking his gloves into a pocket and looking over at her. "That's the blonde I hired today."

Mandy looked over and raised an eyebrow, "Always providing the office with light and laughter, aren't you? I give her a week."

He snorted then. "I bet you fifty dollars she makes it to November with us."

Mandy laughed, sharp and high, and he had to throw a little shield up to keep from getting cut on her barbs. "What? Don't tell me-- you had another feeling. She's the real thing too?"

"As a matter of fact..." Josh started, and then closed his mouth. There was something about her, wasn't there? Something that made him think she was worth keeping around, and it wasn't something he could entirely be certain was empathic. It was a familiarity that went further than whatever emotions were circulating around the campaign office. "Listen, can I have five minutes? I think I need to clear something up."

"Take all the time you need with your little match girl," Mandy said, tight little smirk on her lips. A flush of heat rippled outward from her at him-- little flames that licked against down his spine and stood his hair on end, "Just don't take _too_ much time. We need to keep warm if we're going to survive this." He watched her wait impatiently for an elevator across the lobby, and waited until the big metal doors closed on her, cutting him off from her emotions. He waited a moment, gathered himself together and slunk into the bar.

The floor was slightly warped wood and the bartender wanted her. If there was one emotion Josh was good at picking out immediately, it was that. Donna was hard to read; she'd been hard to read in the office, too. His crystal ball was getting foggy -- only it was really more like an electric static, the same white noise given by dead radio frequencies when you drove through nowhere, familiar bits and pieces occasionally making themselves heard in just the maddening way that prevented you from touching that dial to change the station. It too, was familiar.

It frightened him.

It meant something, and it tickled at the back of his neck. It was important, and he needed to know why.

She turned her head slightly, pushing back that same strand of loose hair. "Josh." This she said with a warm grin, but the suddenness of it startled him. He snapped back, pulling all his little spies back inside, safe. The bartender gave him a look, and he landed hard back into the world of mundane homo sapiens. Bam!

"Hey." He shot a look back at the bartender. "What the hell are you doing here? I thought you were at the Econo Lodge?"

"Well, I was, but I decided I needed a drink, and Deke here," And she waved at the bartender, who was polishing a glass-- something Josh only thought they did in movies, frankly, "was telling me all about the Governor's farm."

He shifted in his spot, looking from bartender to Donna. There was something about her eyes. "Uhuh."

"You've been there, right? As your assistant, I think I should get to go with you."

"They don't have farms in Wisconsin?"

Donna rolled her eyes. "I grew up in Madison. We lived in a condo, Josh." And she looked at the bartender, "I don't think he knows how to appreciate the pastoral beauty of farmland."

Actually, he hadn't been to the farm. Josh wasn't that close with the candidate yet, and wasn't sure he wanted to get there. Jed Bartlet was not the warm, inviting personage that John Hoynes had been. And surely there were lessons to learn from that, about eyes being wide open and rose colored glasses. "I only started two weeks ago." And he pulled up a bar stool.

"Aha." Donna said, as if it meant something.

Josh looked at her, baffled. "What?"

She popped a peanut in her mouth, "Well, two weeks ago, I had never even heard of Bartlet. I didn't even know he was running, and then all of the sudden, 'wham!' Bartlet's on NPR arguing for mutant rights and challenging Hoynes on social security. Like he came out of nowhere."

"He did," the bartender rejoined and Josh shot him a look and the derision that went with it.

A moment later, the bartender had scurried down the other end, and Donna was slinking into her chair. He sighed. Now that he was closer, her electric crackle had faded to distant background noise. She was just like anyone else; currently in a dripping state of mortification. "Mutant rights was Sam's idea. I only contributed the social security."

Off her look, he continued, "Really, if you hadn't heard of him before, I wouldn't have blamed you. But Leo McGarry's building a team that's poised to win, and the Governor's the best man I've seen in fifteen years of professional politics. I've never heard of CJ Cregg, but she's got game, and Toby Ziegler's much more than a cocktail party joke. We're going to take this election. I've never been so sure of anything in my life. This isn't a joke, or a game, or some spoiler campaign to get issues out here, and I didn't leave my corner office in DC to lose."

"I know," Donna said, raising her head challengingly. Her conviction could be blown away by a slight breeze, he thought, but it clung to her, and there was a certain glimmer in her eyes. "Just because I was tending bar two weeks ago doesn't mean I don't know the real thing when I see it."

"Good. Because this isn't a two month break from your boyfriend to teach him a demonstrable lesson in how to keep it in his pants." Josh countered. "This campaign is serious, and I won't abide anyone who thinks otherwise." He could feel her anger lashing around her, and he wasn't entirely certain why he was making her prove herself again.

"What makes you think he left me for another woman?" Donna asked, "After all, if your girlfriend was giving you a -- a free ride through medical school, wouldn't you want to keep her around?"

"I'm not that guy." He snapped back. Donna crossed her arms in front of her chest. Vulnerable, so vulnerable, like a gentle wave rolling over him. He wanted to throw up suddenly, ashamed of himself. He should know better, he did know better. "I'm sorry."

"It wasn't another woman." She responded, almost as softly. Soft, yet boldly, the white noise rising and falling in sudden inaudible harmony with that of her heart, and he realized then what it was about her that was so familiar.

Josh swallowed. "You're a -- " It was practically a whisper, but the word died in his throat. He looked over his shoulder briefly. Deke the bartender was spritzing disinfectant on the other end of the bartop, and daringly curious in their conversation.

She didn't respond with words. Her hands ducked under the bartop, and he leaned back, to watch. Slowly, faint strands of light began to glimmer in the shadow, pale silver and the occasional spark of gold. It seemed to float off of her skin, but it was beautiful. It was her. He raised an eyebrow, asking permission and she nodded her head.

It was wet. He wouldn't have thought it was wet, but it was moist in the same consistency as a fog bank. It even had the faint smell of rainwater, he noted as it dried against the tips of his fingers. Dried, more than anything it reminded him of Mandy's eyeshadow, a million inperceptively tiny little glints of metal clinging to his skin. He looked up, then, in time to catch her swallowing and looking down at her hands. The electric humming she made faded back down to it's normal tempo; she was afraid.

"What -- ?" He asked, brushing the metallic dust off on his pants.

"I'm a _mutant_," Donna cried, and Josh found himself wincing. Deke the Bartender had heard that, and had disappeared somewhere in the back. Fantastic. "I just wanted to live a normal life; I don't turn invisible or make earthquakes and I can't walk through walls. I don't want to hurt anyone or think I'm better than they are, because really, how stupid is making little foggy clouds? I have to take these iron pills because otherwise I can get anemic really quickly and -- "

Josh reached out to touch her shoulder, safely ensconced in the nylon of her jacket, "Donna -- Donna? Seriously. Stop, you have to -- stop." And she did stop, not without one last little lip wibble. "I'm not going to fire you because -- I'm not going to fire you. Technically, I didn't even hire you, so I'm not even sure what the procedure would be... "

She squinted, and all that anger and frustration and hurt melted away into pure suspicion. "You're not?"

"No."

"Why not? There's nothing stopping you from dumping me out in the snow, no clause in any sub-paragraph of section B of any law that says you're not allowed to discriminate against mutants."

Josh straightened in his chair, and put his hands down on the bartop. "I wouldn't do that. And if I did, Leo'd fire my ass so quickly that you and I'd be lost out in the blizzard together." He couldn't tell if she believed him or not -- it was kind of lost in the haze. He wanted her to believe that, maybe even needed it. With a swoop, he reached out and grabbed her wrists, pulling her over and precariously wobbling the stools.

His eyes slid close and he felt around for something good, something to latch onto. The first thing he found was the remembered warmth of the marble stonework on the steps of the Capitol in DC. The perfect summer then, night walking along the Tidal Basin with Mandy's hand in his own, and his thumbs pressed lightly against Donna's veins, her pulse quickening to match his. The Fourth of July, fireworks timed to the Ode to Joy and the laughter of his friends in the Senator's office as they drank beers and spread out into the grass on the Mall...

Donna took in a little breath. "Wow."

Josh let out his own held breath, and let the good memories fizzle, fading around the edges until the world readjusted itself. "Yeah, it's..." He pulled his hands away from her wrists and readjusted the sleeves of his shirt. "You can't fight crime with it."

She chuckled, deep and throaty. He looked away, and swallowed.

"We'd be out in the blizzard together," he whispered.

"They don't know," Donna said, sure of herself. She drained the last of her beer, and Josh tried not to notice her rubbing her wrists where he'd touched her. "You should tell them." His mouth opened a little and he looked suspiciously at her, as she continued, "This campaign -- He's the only one out there who doesn't support a registration law of some kind, let along mandatory genetic testing on children before they enter school." She then stopped, "Unless you don't want to. You don't have to. I'm sorry. I'm -- I've never met... I'm sorry. I don't know what's polite for us -- "

Josh looked at her, and then looked at his watch. "You need to get going before the snow gets too high." He slid off the stool and rummaged around in his pockets, pulling out a five dollar bill that had clearly gone through the wash at least once. This he slapped up onto the bar, "I have to get upstairs; Mandy's going to have a conniption fit."

Donna looked at him again, and frowned but there was only blissful silence. In his brain, as the saying went, you could hear a pin drop. "What time do I need to be in tomorrow?"

"Seven," Josh answered, and turned towards the elevator. There was absolutely no one in the lobby, and he could hear Donna's shoes clomping towards the exit. He waited until the elevator came. As the doors slid closed, he banged his head against the elevator wall. Stupid, stupid. She was just a campaign volunteer. He had no idea what had gotten into him. Every time they spoke, she somehow wormed her way into his trust, and he was afraid before the week was out she'd know his complete life story and mother's maiden name.

Scratch that; he knew she would. And it probably would take all of fifteen minutes.

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is set in a universe where Josh Lyman is Magneto's grandson, and hence has inherited mutant powers. As the original novella length story was never completed, there are only two stories in this universe.
> 
> [Dreamwidth Comment Archive](http://skywaterblue.dreamwidth.org/457267.html#comments)


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